In August of 2006, Dalia Ziada, a young Egyptian writer, discovered her favorite comic-book action hero. He trumpeted justice. He preached of nonviolent pressure. And he had dreams of a promised land that protest might bring. Ziada had just heard the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “It was amazing and really...
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Today we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King (MLK), Jr at a critical moment in American and African American History. The Kwanzaa Guide is pleased to return to devoting blog space to African American History and the heroic figures in our Black History. The narratives of American and African American history are often...
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Defining the Major Periods in African American History “We Must Learn and Know” This is an excerpt from a forthcoming book entitled In All Our Glory: A Comprehensive Overview of African American History. Central to grasping and appreciating the unfolding of the African American experience in America is knowing the chronology of the master...
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Kwanzaa places a premium and priority on African American History. The Kwanzaa symbol ‘Mat” represents tradition and history. The Kwanzaa principle Self-determination instructs that African Americans study, know, and build upon their history and honor and celebrate their heroes and heroines. Thus, we honor and celebrate the 86th year birthday of Malcolm X. Much...
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Fifty years ago, 14 black students from Tennessee State University were beaten and arrested during the Freedom Rides that helped integrate the South. For their courage, they were expelled from school, and informed of that decision by letter while still jailed in Mississippi. This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides. Read...
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One hundred and fifty years ago marked the beginning of the Civil War, a violent political conflict that would redefine the reach of American citizenship, and set in motion a perpetual struggle for the meaning and soul of America. Frederick Douglass still provides the best summation and analysis of the Civil War. For Frederick...
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On April 4th we remember and honor Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr., for the sacrifice he made on behalf of black people and humanity in general. Note that by reframing April 4th as King’s Sacrifice Day, we take focus away from his killer(s) and place it on the heroic and ultimate sacrifice MLK made...
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Lost in the narrative of the uprising in North Africa and the Middle East is the model and inspiration Arabs are drawing from Martin Luther King and by extension the 1960 African American freedom struggle . Depicted as a comic-book action hero, Martin Luther King trumpets justice, advocates nonviolent struggle, and “dreams of a...
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The problematic of Brown v Board of Education resulted in a disinvestment in black schools by black people. This along white working class resistance to busing and the goal of school integration has resulted in crisis in education among black youth that we see today and that is spelled out in A Call For...
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The landmark Brown v Board of Education 1954 Supreme Court ruling had far-reaching implication beyond outlawing legal segregation in public schools, opening a new era of education for blacks. Yet, the Promise of Brown never materialized, leaving a legacy of uneducated and unprepared black children. Read more: http://afro-americanstudies.com/blog/2011/03/the-promise-and-problematic-of-brown-v-board-of-education-part-one/
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